A satisfying 3vs3 fighter with a few minor hang-ups

Invincible VS rating: 8/10

Pros

Definitely captures the brutal, unforgiving nature of the Invincible franchise.
Intense 3vs3 combat that’s easy to play, but hard to master.
A wealth of game mechanics allow for amazing back-and-forth action.
The characters have movesets and gimmicks that fit their character, even if it can be a detriment in-game.

Cons

The campaign, while interesting and fun, is a little on the short side.
Some of the movement (in particular forward jumping) is clunky and awkward.
The Assist Breaker penalty is more than a little bit high.

Invincible VS review: Buckets of blood, and hours of fighting game joy

You can put together some truly monstrous combos in Invincible VS (Image via Skybound Entertainment || Sportskeeda)

Ever since Invincible VS was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase, I’ve been pumped to play it. Though I don’t have as much time for fighting games as I used to, with MMOs consuming more of my work and personal time, I love and value them greatly. There’s something satisfying about finding the perfect character or team for you, and taking them online. Sure, you’re not always going to win, especially in this game, but it’s so enjoyable to put in the work, and see it bear fruit.

Invincible VS is a combination of systems that make the game much easier to get into, while also complicating things a great deal. That’s what makes a fighting game great though, I think. While the combos are pretty easy to learn, combos and tags feel like they very much borrow from Killer Instinct.

You’ve got a meter that fills up as you combo, and if it fills up, the combo drops. The secret is to tag someone in mid-combo, and extend it further. Then, you tag someone else in, and round it out with a nice big super. It’s a really engaging system, and while I do think there are some minor flaws in the gameplay, this system is really one that makes you think on the fly.

You’ve got all the fun fighting game mechanics you could want in one place: Snapbacks, sick combos, variations in tagging out, assists, supers, auto-combos, magic series combos (universal A B C combo system), and much more. There’s so much to love about this game, no matter what your fighting game experience is.

Invincible VS review: First Impressions

The tutorial is solid and robust, teaching all the important mechanics (Image via Skybound Entertainment || Sportskeeda)

The presentation for Invincible VS is flawless. The characters look just like they do in the show, the voices are familiar, and even the occasional “smash cut to title screen” when the name Invincible is said in the story mode was brilliant.

It also offers players a decent tutorial, where you learn all the basics and advanced game mechanics. This is incredibly important, because there are, as I said earlier, variations in how/when you tag in. You can feint tags to try and bait out your opponents moves, and punish them.

This is great, as long as your opponent knows the game in and out as well. If you whiff the feint, it can feel awful when you lose a huge chunk of your life bar. This is primarily a four-button fighter (Light, Medium, Heavy, Super), along with a few other extra buttons. You can also Boost your specials (think EX in Street Fighter), you have a dash button, tons of jump/double jump options, and your Tag/Assist buttons. It’s very easy to get into after doing the tutorial.

I think that most of the movement is great too, but the only thing I really get hung up on is that the forward jumping is pretty lackluster. As someone who is guilty of jumping in, this is, in its own way, a good thing! It stops me from doing it so much, which is great, because it prevents the immediate knock up and combo.

Invincible VS review: Storytelling

Though the story is all-new, it starts in very familiar ground (Image via Skybound Entertainment || Sportskeeda)

The actual moment-to-moment storytelling of the Story Mode of Invincible VS is solid. It’s a little confusing at first, but it’s Invincible, so that makes sense, in a way. I did enjoy the story, and appreciated that it was put together by the Amazon Prime show writers. However, it’s woefully short at just about forty five minutes to an hour at the most.

It also ends on kind of a cliffhanger, in my estimation. I hope there’s going to be more story in the future, because I was really getting into it. I won’t spoil any of it here, because there are some neat surprises in store for fans of the comic and show. I will say that the story itself was solid, as was the voice acting. I just wish there was more of it.

Invincible VS: Gameplay mechanics

1) The good: Moment-to-moment gameplay is stellar

Gameplay is incredible, on and offline (Image via Skybound Entertainment || Sportskeeda)

I’m such a huge fan of how Invincible VS looks, feels, and most importantly, plays. You’ve only got a few supers, a throw, and your normals, but that’s really all you need. Whether you use autocombos (mash Light into Super), or magic series combos (A B C), you can do decent damage. It’s better to not use the autocombo, but it’s decent enough for new players to sort of learn how their character should act and perform. Everyone has an easy launcher (knock a character up into the air to air combo them), which is Crouching Heavy. You can block in the air, and in a lot of cases double jump and air dash.

The damage is big, and it’s pretty easy for many characters to really apply pressure and deal tons of damage. It can feel brutal and unforgiving if you aren’t prepared, but I love that as a fighting game player. That means while my opponent can do flashy, huge combos, I can too, once I learn them.

And they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the floor! (Image via Skybound Entertainment)

You even have Overkills, where you splatter a body into tons of pieces. This can happen even mid-fight, when you take down one member of your opponents team. You just need to kill an enemy with a super or ultimate attack, instead of a normal hit. It’s gory and ridiculous, exactly what you no doubt have come to expect from Invincible as a franchise.

In addition, the characters are exactly how you’d figure they are, in Invincible VS. For example, Duplikate’s special attacks burn her health, because they require her to make clones. She takes purple health damage (can be regenerated) when using her supers, but it seemed like her normals helped her recover that. It’s a very dangerous character to play, but if you know what you’re doing, it won’t even matter. It’s the little touches like that, that I think are phenomenal.

2) The Bad: Assist Breakers

Part of the intricate gameplay are Counter Tags, where you can bring in a partner to break up a combo string that you’re stuck in. Unfortunately, you won’t always have the time or ability to use these, so sometimes you’ll have to use Assist Breaker, which may be familiar to BlazBlue/Guilty Gear players.

It will immediately break you out of a combo, but it comes at a cost that is entirely too steep. Your assists will be locked in a cooldown, you need two meter bars to even do it in the first place, and one of your assists’ health gets cut in half (at least it’s purple health damage, so as long as they don’t tag in, it will recover). I think the BlazBlue version is much better: You get one per set, don’t waste it.

Invincible VS review: Performance and visuals

Everyone from Allen the Alien to Rex Splode look and feel like they should (Image via Skybound Entertainment)

I really wanted to go out of my way to say that the Netcode is phenomenal in Invincible VS. Right out of the box, it includes Rollback, and no matter what happened, my matches were fluid, smooth, with zero lag. More fighting games need to launch with an online experience that feels this satisfying.

The visuals are fantastic, too. I’ve gushed about them already in this review, but I cannot overstate how good this game looks. Each and every character looks, moves, and sounds exactly like they would in the animated series. From Cecil’s teleporting and gun blasts to the dulcet tones of Battle Beast’s Michael Dorn, it’s all wonderful. When it comes to the presentation and performance, it’s top notch. There are some voice actor changes (Aleks Le as Invincible, Gavin Hammon as Cecil Stedman for example), but they still sound phenomenal.

Invincible VS review: Final Thoughts

While I do wish there were more modes and gameplay options in Invincible VS, I think there’s a lot on offer right out of the gate, in terms of gameplay. If you just want to pick up a tight, mechanically sound 3v3 fighting game, look no further than this game. It’s a game that offers lots of great options in battle.

From what I understand, there are finally ways to punish rage quitters too, which is great! My very first online match was where I dominated someone from start to finish, and they ragequit at the absolute last second, so I was denied a victory. This was in a casual lobby, too! I’ll never understand it.

While there are some minor flaws in Invincible VS, the game is overall very enjoyable. I think if there were some more game modes, and perhaps some minor mechanical changes, this would be a contender for fighting game of the year. Nonetheless, it’s a very good start, and I think you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck if you are looking for a new fighting game.